MASEFIELD—NAN—THE WITCH 107

gone on to Taormina, and I was obliged to follow in their
wake, for I was on the way home

Yet there were compensations I met one of the most
interesting of Englishmen, the Duke of Bronte, the
unofficial ruler of Taormma, and the owner of a lovely
home and of the garden in which Persephone ran

All sorts of interesting people were there Robert
Hichens was talking to Miss Dostoevsky, the daughter
of the Russian novelist I watched them It was a hot
day Miss Dostoevsky, leading a hot and incessant
attack of questions and Hichens5 replies growing fainter
and fainter Then my turn came "Tell me about the
character and psychology of English women,3' she said
Hichens, seizing the moment, faded away and left me
to the inquisition Crime at Chdtiment1 What cowards
men are1 I wanted to ask him what psychology is
however, I extolled the character of English women so
bravely that in the end she said "My father would not
have liked to live in England, it's far too good for him "

I returned to England to find a letter from John
Masefield, which had been waiting to bid me welcome
home again It was an invitation for the week-end
to his house in Berkshire The house was being redeco-
rated, hence the verse which ends his invitation

"In all the universe there ain't
A beastlier stink than drying paint
A leaky cask of crude petroleum
Is nothing to new-laid linoleum
The joy of man and woman's gone
When household water isn't on
By Tuesday next, with happy fate,
These things will end and we'll be straight "